


The Unspoken

by CatalenaMara



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Gen, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Thanos (Marvel) Dies, Time Travel, Tony Stark learns magic, infinity war fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 23:14:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15650922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatalenaMara/pseuds/CatalenaMara
Summary: Tony Stark has only one chance to fix the events of Infinity War – and it involves going back in time to find out everything he can from Loki, at the moment where he is alone in a cell, chained and muzzled and imprisoned, waiting to be taken back to Asgard after the Battle of New York.Many thanks to my betasTenayaandMuriel_Perunfor your invaluable advice and comments.





	1. Chapter 1

**_Six years ago - 2018._**  

Peter.  Gone to ash and dust.  Darkness of space and the howling in Stark’s head. 

Earth.  Pepper.  Gone before he got home.  Pepper - one more dust heap blown around the world.  Dust in the wind.  All of those who survived - breathing in the dead.  Choking on dust and memories.

Alcohol, madness, obsession.  Awake for days – brain racing with plan after plan – collapsing into sleep –  nightmares in which everyone he knew dissolved before him – screaming name after name – seeing it all again when wide awake –

Those who remained – their eyes filled with the same madness, the same incalculable, inconsolable loss.  Bruce had disappeared.  Thor, Steve, Natasha, and Rhodey were out there somewhere in the wreckage of the world.  Chaos and anarchy and madness and grief and inconceivable loss had engulfed  every country, city, town, village. 

They were doing what they could by creating and protecting small refuges.  All of them, the walking wounded, their need to help giving them the strength to still try to be heroes even while those who had survived all too often turned on each other, in the name of religion or old feuds or opportunistic power grabs.  Dozens of new cults had sprung up overnight; the ones started by people who had expected to be raptured but had been left behind were among the most fanatic and violent.

Stark had abandoned the shredded remnants of his life and sought out the only place on the planet that still might hold an answer.  He’d erased himself from the greater world and hidden himself behind invisible walls.  He’d told Thor, and no one else.  He hadn’t asked Thor to keep it secret.  If Thor needed to reveal his whereabouts, that would be his decision.

Stark had mocked Strange’s name for the place – the “Sanctum Sanctorum” – but after the landing back on earth, after he’d made his way back to New York City, Stephen Strange’s final words repeating endlessly in his head, he’d gone there in search of answers.

But when he had shown up at where the building should have been, there was nothing there.  Not the slightest trace that the building had ever existed.

Lost, in utter despair, he’d nearly given up.

Then Wong had opened the door.  And took him inside.

 

**_Now - 2024._ **

Magic and science.  Thor had said they were closely allied, and in the tiny spaces among all the projects that formerly had occupied his mind, Stark had given it thought, trying to figure out how he, too, could do the things Loki did.  Wanda did.

Strange did.

If he’d ever had the time to give it serious study.

In the shadows of Strange’s house, in the vibrations of the occult objects it held, in the pages of the ancient books he’d learned to read, he’d found himself able to understand magic; he and Wong united with one purpose: to find that one way to win.

The Time Stone was macro, and without possessing it manipulating time on a massive scale was beyond them.  But what he intended to achieve – this was micro.  And would take surgical precision.

_Thanos.  He invades planets; he takes what he wants; he wipes out half the population.  He sent Loki.  The attack on New York - that’s him._

Bruce’s words. 

Stark’s focus.  Purpose.  Goal.

Now, seated crosslegged across from Wong, Stark remembered every detail.  2012.  The Hulk Hotel, a plain concrete chamber buried hundreds of feet underground.  A secure chamber, intended for Banner, holding a different occupant, chained and manacled, his green eyes remote and disinterested, ignoring every attempt to bait him as if they did not exist. 

Stark held the reconstructed image in his mind.  Vivid.  Real.  As if he were there.

“Ready?” 

Stark looked at the man seated opposite him.  Wong looked back, hands resting on his knees, palms up.  The air was charged with power.

Whatever Strange had seen in that one future where they’d won, he’d given no further clue.  But he’d given up the Time Stone to save Stark’s life – a life Strange had casually dismissed only a short time before.

The plan.  All depended on this one moment in time.

If Wong was right. 

If this worked.

If he got back.

If any of them, him included, remembered anything.

Maybe one of these days he could discuss time paradoxes with those with more experience.

Right now, he needed Thor’s crazy brother to tell them everything he knew about Thanos.

It was all up to him now.  “Yes.” 

He and Wong raised their right hands, each dangling an amulet of power.  And chanted a spell. 


	2. Chapter 2

**_Twelve years ago - 2012._ **

_The right place.  The right time._

_The right moment._

Now.  The world refocused.  There.   Loki, seated on a solid block of a bench permanently affixed to the floor and wall of the holding cell.  Manacles around his wrists.  The chain between them.  The muzzle covering his mouth.

When Stark popped into existence at the far edge of the viewing chamber on the other side of the transparent wall holding Loki prisoner, Loki didn’t see him.  Loki’s face was blank – what he could see of it above the muzzle.  There were still marks on his face from the beating Hulk had given him. 

Exactly like before.

Loki shifted position.  Sharp green eyes snapped to Stark’s face.  He raised his eyebrows slightly and tilted his chin up, giving Stark the most supercilious look imaginable.  In the old days, Stark would have had a lot to say about that.

In the old days, he had a lot to say about everything.

“Hey, Reindeer Games,” Stark said.  “I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll be quick.”

Loki stood, a mocking look crossing his face, replaced immediately by puzzlement and then a sudden intense curiosity as he took a closer look at Stark, his eyes saying the words he was prevented from speaking. 

Stark knew what he saw – he’d seen it in the mirror the few times he accidentally looked.  Himself, older.  Exhausted.  Half mad.  Hair gone grey.  His beard unshaven.  So much older than the 12 years that had gone by since this moment in time. 

“Six years ago, half the world died,”  Stark stated.  _Hurry hurry hurry!_ his brain was screaming.  He knew to the second how long he had before Thor arrived to take Loki back to Asgard.  He fought down panic.  This had to be done right. 

Loki tilted his head and shifted his stance, his expression and body language clearly conveying, _What kind of game are you playing NOW?_

“Twelve years ago we took you from this cell and sent you back to Asgard.”

Loki’s eyebrows rose toward his hairline.  He leaned forward, the chains jangling, and studied him closely. 

“Thanos,” Stark said.

Chains rattling, Loki jerked back so fast Stark thought he’d climb up on the bench.  Loki’s face went bone white.  Terror, clearly unfeigned, shone in those green eyes.  Even under all that leather armor Stark could see Loki’s rapid breathing. 

“Thor will be here soon to take you.  Before then, I need to show you something and I need you to tell me something.”

Loki got himself back under some control, his eyes filled with rage that easily equaled his terror.  He stood up, lifted both hands, chains rattling, and gestured to the muzzle covering his mouth.

“Sorry, can’t take that off.  I’m not getting in there with you.  But here’s an old school solution,” Stark said. 

Right on cue a hatch opened on his side of the transparent wall and a tray, normally meant for food and drink, slid out.   _Thank you JARVIS for making this possible, for opening the hatch._   He’d programmed a request that would be sent to his former AI as soon as he’d stepped into this time to operate the hatch and to interfere with the image on the monitoring cameras by putting the previous twenty minutes on loop.  As a backup plan he had tools to do the same things, but that would have taken precious seconds longer to do.  And every one of those seconds counted.

Stark dumped the contents of the bag he carried in the tray, and it immediately slid through to the other side.

Loki stared at the yellow legal pads and pens that were pushed by a mechanism into the room before the tray retreated and the hatch snapped shut.  He looked back at Stark, eyes still questioning.

Thor already told him the answer to this question, but Stark needed to ask it of Loki anyway.  “Can you write – “ Loki looked offended “ – so I can read it?”  Loki’s expression changed to smug condescension.  He nodded. 

“Awhile back I came up with this invention.  It’s called Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing.  It allows for the external projections of traumatic memories via holograms.  And those projections can be captured and replayed.”  Rapid-fire words poured out of him; he couldn’t slow them.  “Watch this,” Stark said, and took in a deep breath.  He pressed the control he carried and the images sprang to life. 

Loki’s eyes widened as he looked at the projection.  He took half a step forward. 

Stark kept his gaze on Loki.  He already knew what Loki would see:  Thor, hair shorn, face worn with grief, dressed in armor Loki had never seen.

Loki approached the transparent wall, his gaze entirely fixed on the image.  Then, chains jangling, he clapped his hands together as if applauding a reasonably good theatrical performance and fixed his gaze on Stark expectantly.

Then the holographic Thor spoke.  “Brother.  We have lost.  Thanos has destroyed all.” 

Loki’s head whipped back to the image instantly.  Thor continued speaking.  “Brother, lest you think this some sorcery, consider – I do not know any of those people in this image.”

Pure horror spread across Loki’s face as the image shifted:  Thanos with his followers, their weapons pointed at Loki.  When Thor had consented to let him capture this memory with his technology, Stark had found the brutality of what happened hard to watch.

He didn’t watch it now.  "I, Loki, Prince of Asgard, Odinson…”  Stark kept his gaze on Loki’s face as the image of his last moments played out.  “…the rightful King of Jotunheim, God of Mischief…” Expressions of shock, fury, disbelief, and horror, raced across the deathly pale face.  “I assure you, brother, the sun will shine on us again."

One minute more.  Asgardian bodies.   The Hulk.  The murder of a dreadlocked man.  Then the image of an eyepatched Thor sobbing over Loki’s body. 

The image disappeared.

Visibly trembling Loki stared into space, face blank and slack with shock.

Thor’s image returned.  “Listen to me now, brother.  When the Aether and the Tesseract come into your sole possession you must learn the days and times of mortals.  And on the day mortals call March 15, 2017, you must send the Tesseract and the Aether to the Midgardian man named Stephen Strange who dwells at 177A Bleecker St., New York City.”

Stark watched Loki’s expression change from disbelief to bewilderment.

“I know this means nothing to you now,” Thor said, “but the moment will come when you stand alone in the Vault as King of Asgard.  Then, you will realize the truth of it.  That will be your moment, brother, and we will all live or die because of it.  And if we live, you shall be the greatest hero Asgard will ever claim.”

Something dawned in Loki’s expression – the dream of escape, the glimpse of an opportunity to be seized.  Loki turned a fierce gaze on Stark.  There were tears on his face.  Loki picked up a pen and wrote rapidly, “Where and when?”

“We don’t have time for you to ask any questions.   Write everything you know of Thanos and the people with him.  Everything about his plans.  Does he have any vulnerabilities?  Everything you can, as quickly as you can.  The locations of the Soul Stone and the Power Stone, if you know that.  We’ve got magicians here on earth too, so tell us what we need to know about using the Tesseract, the Aether, the Mind Stone, and the Time Stone.”

A flash of surprise crossed Loki’s face at the mention of the Time Stone, but an instant later he was writing at inhuman speed.  Stark checked the time and watched as Loki filled page after page after page as the minutes ticked by.  He held himself back from pacing.  His heart raced.  He thought of Pepper.  Here, now, she was still alive.  He tried not to think of Pepper. 

When there were only 120 seconds left Stark said, “That’s it.  It has to be enough.”  The hatch opened and Loki slid the pages and the pens inside.  Stark grabbed them as it opened on his side. 

Loki was now pressed against the transparent barrier, his eyes desperate.

“He killed Pepper,” Stark said without meaning to.  “There is nothing I wouldn’t do to bring her back.”

Loki spread his hands in an inarticulate demand for **_more_** _._

_There was no other way, Strange had said._

Stark paused a second before activating the spell.  He held Loki’s gaze, intent, realizing Loki needed something else from him.  “Someone you don’t know – someone who isn’t even a magician now, but will be – foresaw millions of possible futures where Thanos succeeds and only one where he doesn’t.  He sacrificed himself for me without leaving me any guidelines.  I have to believe everything I do – and you will do – is how we will succeed.”

Loki’s expression changed again.  Now his eyes held the dawning of hope.

Stark felt it too.   He gave Loki a broken smile, and activated the spell.

Loki and the cell he was in disappeared.  Now, in front of him:  177A Bleecker St., New York City.  And if it had worked as planned it was March 14, 2017, a day before he would know if Loki would come through.

That gave him one day to convince Strange.  He had another BARF image ready to show the sorcerer – his own memories of Strange’s last minutes on Titan. 

Stark knocked on the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Now –  2018.  Norway._ **

Wind sighed through pine needles.  Tony inhaled the freshness in the air.  Birds were chattering close by, and somewhere in the distance he could hear the rippling sounds of a stream.

Down below, on the grassy Norwegian plain, the huge black ship parked in its center looked utterly out of place.  As did the outdoor stage and several large prefab buildings placed in a semicircle nearby. 

Milling around the stage and the buildings, the world’s dignitaries mingled with Thor and the Asgardian refugees.  Some were U.N. representatives, some were higher-ups in the Norwegian government.  Some of the newest members of the World Security Council, posing as diplomatic attachés, were threading through the crowd.  Tony knew all their names.  He’d spotted Fury down there as well.

Today was ceremonial, a welcome celebration.  The nuts and bolts of the arrival of the Asgardian refugees, where they would live, what they would do in exchange for their new home, had been hammered out weeks before their arrival on earth.   Tony couldn’t wait until he and Loki could spend quality time discussing magic.  And science.

Tony, from his vantage point on a tree-filled rise, couldn’t stop grinning.  Wong, standing next to him, shared the smile.

Tony glanced to Wong’s left, at Stephen Strange, amused to see the levitation cloak staying unnaturally still despite the breeze.  He’d love to study that thing, and now that he had the power to get in and out of Strange’s mansion any time he felt like it, he’d find the opportunity some time soon.

Strange was looking to the man on Tony’s right.  Loki, standing a little apart from all of them, was staring down into the plain, a trace of melancholy on his pale features. 

Not everything could be fixed.  Not everything could be changed.  Loki’s words ran through his mind again.  _Could we not have saved Asgard?  Could we not have saved my Mother?_

_There were tides in time,_ Wong had explained, _some interlock and others follow different courses.  Change those events and the timeline breaks and reforms and Thanos would prevail._

_Think only of the end goal_ , Wong had said when Tony had obsessed about saving the lives of his parents.  _To achieve it, to win through to the future Stephen Strange saw, you must not allow yourself to go astray on other paths, no matter how much you desire them._

_I thought about saving my parents from being murdered,_ Tony had told Loki yesterday. 

They’d sat in silence for a long time after.

Loki had understood. 

But yet here Loki stood, apart from his people.   He was dressed entirely in black human clothing.  The old Tony would have made a joke.

The new Tony stepped forward to stand by his side.

They’d finally had their drink, just yesterday, at a chalet he owned in Gstaad, situated perfectly to capture the grandest of grand mountain vistas on view outside a long glass wall. 

They’d barely paused talking long enough to swallow their drinks. 

They’d seen the nightmares in each other’s eyes.

_“None of them remember.”  Tony’s gesture had encompassed the world._

_“None of them need to.”_

Tony hadn’t expected to remember.  Tony knew he was the only one who truly remembered everything, and he had multiple theories about the reasons why this was so. 

He’d told Loki the whole story at the chalet.  He’d told Wong as soon as he returned and found everything changed.  As for Strange, he’d used some kind of magical mystical mirror to learn the whole story.  Tony planned to borrow that mirror as soon as expediently possible.  Wong had already told him how to access its secrets.

Loki’s hastily written pages had included a plan as how to kill Thanos.  Spatial coordinates to Sanctuary.  Spells for a magician to use to find Thanos alone.  How to use the Tesseract to transport them there.  How to use the Aether to erase Thanos from Reality.  His recommendation to use the Time Stone, if the attempt failed, to keep trying.  Loki had written more details, including advice on how to safely handle the Stones and how to use them whether or not one was a sorcerer.

Loki’s plan had worked. 

Loki was staring out over the plain, watching the shifting movements of the crowd below.  He looked so very different from the way Tony remembered him.  Despite the melancholy on Loki’s face, he looked strong and healthy.  And sane.   He looked nothing like the hollow-eyed bag-of-cats crazy being who had thrown him through the window of his Tower.

“How would you liked to be viewed as a true hero?  The right amount of propaganda – “ Tony clapped Loki on the shoulder. 

Loki glanced at Tony’s hand as he  turned to face him.  “I was once consumed by those sorts of desires,” he said.  “It is enough that I have been made welcome here.”

Tony preened.  “That required a massive amount of bullshit and a lot of hacking in government files.  The easy part is to start rumors and post alleged leaked government documents all over the dark web and social media alike.  You, on the side of humans all along, leading the alien army to its destruction.  You, giving us knowledge that prevented annihilation.”  His eyes darkened for a moment, then he forced a grin.  “Everyone loves a conspiracy theory, particularly if they think a cover-up is involved.  The fact that it’s mostly true helps.  Never say I don’t take pride in my work.”

Loki’s gaze had gone distant for a moment, but when Tony stopped talking he huffed a laugh, his eyes crinkling at the corners.  “You,” he said in a tone of exaggerated flattery, “are a born trickster.” 

“Genius, billionaire, philanthropist, trickster.”  Tony liked the way that sounded.

Loki returned his attention to the plain before.  A bright red dot in the distance was advancing rapidly towards this hill.  Thor was heading in their direction.

Loki turned to face all of them, Tony, and Wong, and Strange.  “We four,” he said, “the point on which the universe turned.  The only ones who know what truly happened.”

“No one else will ever know.  Nor should they,” Wong said.

“Agreed,” Loki and Strange said simultaneously.

Loki turned again to contemplate Thor’s progress across the plain below them.  He was nearer the base of the hill now.   Loki moved closer to where the land began its descent; Tony following.

“Will you tell him anything?” Tony asked quietly.

Loki giving him an incredulous look.   “Did I not just say I would not tell anyone?”

Tony shrugged and gave him a wry smile.

“It is enough that he now knows what happened once I fell into the Void and who sent me to Midgard.  He need not know he once lost everything.  He has sorrow enough now.”  Loki contemplated Tony’s expression.  “Will you tell your lady?”

“Never,” Tony said forcefully. 

Loki’s gaze travelled back over the people in the valley below, humans and Asgardians mingling together.  Then down.  Thor had reached the bottom of the hill and started to climb, the brightness of his smile visible from even this distance.  His golden hair was now long enough to reach his collar.

“You going to be content settling here.”  Tony didn’t quite make it a question. 

Loki flashed him a toothy smile.  “What do you think?”  Turning away, he began descending the hill.

“Don’t forget,” Tony called after him, “you promised to show me some of your tricks.”

Loki paused for a second, turned, and extended one hand.  Tony didn’t know what to expect – did Asgardians even know how to give someone the bird? – then a ball of green light coalesced above Loki’s palm, rose in the air and headed his direction.  Tony held out his hand.  The green light descended, touched his skin, and broke apart in green runes hovering in midair.

The magic Tony had already learned instantly translated the message.  _Once these formalities are taken care of, I will show you anything you like._

He looked up to find Dr. Strange had followed him. 

Tony smirked.  “I’m going to want a deep dive into arcane magick from you too.”

“I don’t remember ever saying I would take you on as an apprentice,” Strange countered.

“Uh-uh-uh!  Anything you can do I can do better.” Tony gave him his most arrogant grin.

Strange shook his head condescendingly.  “We’ll see about that.”

Wong gave them both his best stony stare, and Tony and Strange burst out laughing.

Tony turned his attention back to Loki as he met Thor halfway down the hill.  Thor slung an arm around Loki’s shoulders, holding him close.  Loki snaked one arm around Thor’s waist.  They walked the rest of the way down the hill and over to their people.

Tony’s cell phone beeped.  He pulled it out left-handed, his wedding ring glinting in the sunlight, and answered.  Pepper began talking, and her every word – including all of those about his ridiculously full schedule, which was definitely going to include a new upgrade to Peter’s suit – was golden to his ears. 

Strange and Wong headed down the hill when it became clear this would be a long call. 

He’d had that other dream again, only last night.  A bright flicker of hope, perhaps a bulwark against the darkness that encroached every time he closed his eyes. 

Him, a father.  He tried to picture it. 

It no longer hurt, the knowledge that telling her about that dream were the last words he had ever said to her.  Because they were no longer the last words.  Not now.

Pepper’s voice had taken on a stern tone.  “Tony, are you listening?”

“I love you,” he said.

Her voice softened.  “I love you too, Tony.  Are you OK?”

“Yes,” he said, “Everything is fine.”  And he vowed silently he would keep it that way, from anything that threatened them, as long as he drew breath.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: I chose the date mentioned in the story to place it sometime between the events of “Dr. Strange” and “Thor: Ragnarok”.


End file.
